Floury Burglar Leads Police To His Front Door

A burglar has been locked up after he left a trail of floury footsteps from the crime scene to his own front door.

Anthony Rudkin wore gloves to ransack his neighbour's flat in Whitecross Road in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset last October.

The 48-year-old did not realise a large bag of flour had spilt over the hallway carpet and he had walked through it.

Rudkin went back to his flat having taken jewellery and a Playstation 4 from his neighbour, who was not in at the time.

After the neighbour arrived back home and alerted police, officers followed the trail of flour to Rudkin's home.

Once inside they found more flour, along with a pair and gloves and trainers with the same pattern on the soles as the one left in the flour.

Rudkin later admitted burglary and was jailed for two years and five months at Bristol Crown Court on Friday.

PC Dave Cousins of Avon and Somerset Police said: "Some investigations are incredibly complex and require some thorough and intelligent police work.

"However, in this case the actions of the victim and the attending officers resulted in Rudkin's quick arrest and seizure of key evidence.

"Rudkin thought he was being clever by using gloves to cover his tracks but failed to realise he had trodden in flour and led us straight to his front door.

"We treat all dwelling burglaries very seriously as they have a significant impact on the victim.

"And we will relentlessly pursue those who commit these crimes to bring them to justice."

Trump Backtracks On Vow To Order Torture

Republican White House candidate Donald Trump has performed a sudden U-turn on his vow to endorse the use of torture on terrorism suspects if elected.

In a statement to the Wall Street Journal, the real estate billionaire said he would not order the American military to break international laws if he becomes US president.

The Republican front runner said he would "use every legal power that I have to stop these terrorist enemies".

"I do, however, understand that the United States is bound by laws and treaties and I will not order our military or other officials to violate those laws and will seek their advice on such matters.

"I will not order a military officer to disobey the law."

Mr Trump's new stance contrasts starkly with remarks he made at a Republican debate less than 24 hours earlier.

On stage at the forum in Detroit, he stood by previous pledges that he would order "a hell of a lot worse" than waterboarding.

"Can you imagine these people, these animals, over in the Middle East that chop off heads, sitting around talking and seeing that we're having a hard problem with waterboarding?" he told moderators.

His statement on Friday follows an open letter written by Republican foreign policy mavens opposing his candidacy, in part, because of his "embrace of the expansive use of torture".

Mr Trump's tough talk has fired up supporters frustrated over the rules of engagement on the US-led campaign against the Islamic State group and other jihadists.

In another policy pivot, Mr Trump said in Thursday's debate he was dropping his stance advocating visa restrictions on highly skilled foreign workers.

He also raised eyebrows during the live Fox News forum as he appeared to defend the size of his manhood.

Despite some bruising exchanges, his rivals all pledged to support Mr Trump if he becomes the Republican party's candidate for November's elections.

Mr Trump has meanwhile cancelled a scheduled speech at Saturday's Conservative Political Action Conference.

His campaign said in a statement that he will instead hold rallies in Kansas and Florida.

Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall Get Married in London

(LONDON)— Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and model-actress Jerry Hall have married in London.

They were photographed emerging with smiles Friday from Spencer House, an 18th-century aristocratic palace in central London.

Murdoch’s News U.K. confirmed Murdoch and Hall, who announced their engagement in January, had married.

It is the fourth marriage for 84-year-old Murdoch, executive chairman of News Corp.

It is 59-year-old Hall’s first marriage. She and her former partner Mick Jagger had an unofficial private Hindu marriage ceremony in Bali, Indonesia, in 1990. During divorce proceedings in 1999 a British court declared the marriage invalid.

Murdoch and Hall are due to hold a celebration ceremony Saturday at St. Bride’s, the “journalists’ church” in London’s Fleet Street.

Facebook Set To Pay Millions More In UK Tax

Facebook is to pay millions more in tax after overhauling its structure, the company has confirmed.

The social network giant was the subject of controversy last year when it was revealed that it paid just £4,327 in corporation tax in 2014.

That was against UK revenues of £105m in 2014 - a year where it made a profit on its worldwide operation of almost £2bn.

It has confirmed that under new arrangements, the majority of its advertising revenue initiated in Britain will now be taxed in the UK.

But there was criticism from Liberal Democrat economics spokeswoman Baroness Kramer, who said it showed the UK corporation tax system was "fundamentally broken".

Sales will no longer be routed through Ireland for Facebook's largest advertisers, but revenues from smaller business sales still will.

The changes should mean a higher UK corporation tax bill. They are due to come into effect in April so the first tax bill under the new structure will come in 2017.

How much more tax this means Facebook will pay has not been made clear.

But according to figures from data firm DueDil, Facebook UK paid £855,832 in tax from 2007-2014.

:: It made a pre-tax loss of £54,186,962 in that period, and its most recent turnover (according to 2014 figures) was £105m.

:: In Ireland from 2008 to 2014, Facebook Ireland paid €14,868,000 (£11,505,549) in tax and it made a pre-tax profit of €3,270,000 (£2,530,619) in that period.

:: Facebook Ireland's most recent turnover (according to 2014 figures) was €4.837bn (£3.743bn).

The latest move by Facebook comes after search engine Google reached a controversial deal with tax authorities to pay £130m in taxes going back 10 years. Critics say the sum is derisory.

Facebook's 2015 worldwide results posted earlier this year showed revenue climbed 44% to $17.93bn (£12.6bn) while net income rose 25% to $3.69bn (£2.59bn).

Facebook said: "On Monday we will start notifying large UK customers that from the start of April they will receive invoices from Facebook UK and not Facebook Ireland.

"What this means in practice is that UK sales made directly by our UK team will be booked in the UK, not Ireland. Facebook UK will then record the revenue from these sales."

It said the changes would provide "transparency".

HM Revenue & Customs did not comment specifically on Facebook , but said it "closely examined" firms to ensure they pay tax due in the UK.

Company Rapped Over Fake Online Reviews

 A marketing firm which wrote more than 800 fake online reviews for clients including car dealers, mechanics and landscape gardeners has been ordered to take them down after a competition probe.

Total SEO wrote the reviews for 86 small businesses that were published across 26 different websites, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said.

It is the first time the CMA has acted over fake online reviews although it stopped short of using its powers to issue a fine or disqualify directors.

Instead it said that the firm, registered in Dorking, Surrey – which has co-operated with the investigation – had made legal undertakings to stop the practice and take down the fake reviews it had already put up.

The CMA has also written to Total SEO's clients to warn them that third parties writing fake reviews might mean them breaking the law themselves.

Nisha Arora, the CMA's senior director for consumers, said: "Our enforcement action against Total SEO makes clear that posting fake reviews about clients is unacceptable."

The CMA has also produced a written explanation for firms warning them that writing or commissioning fake reviews could lead to civil or criminal action.

Total SEO said it had offered online review writing and publication for clients "for a relatively short period of time".

Mugabe: Government will now own all Zimbabwe's diamonds

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has announced plans for his government to take control of all diamond mining operations in a bid to put an end to alleged rampant swindling linked to the multibillion dollar gem industry in the poverty-stricken country.

Mugabe's statement came a week after authorities ordered all private mining companies to stop work and leave the country's Marange fields, which in 2013 reportedly produced about 13 percentof the world's diamond supply, saying that their working licences were not renewed.

"The state will now own all the diamonds in the country," Mugabe said on Thursday in an interview with state broadcaster ZBC TV.

"Companies that have been mining diamonds have robbed us of our wealth. That is why we have now said the state must have a monopoly," Mugabe said.

Zimbabwe was the eighth largest diamond producer in the world with 4.7 million carats in 2014, according to industry group Kimberly Process.

The Zimbabwe Herald newspaper cited Mugabe as saying that he suspects at least $13bn in revenue from the country's diamond industry remains unaccounted for.

"We have not received much from the diamond industry at all," he said. "Not by way of earnings. I don't think we have exceeded $2bn or so and yet we think that well over $15bn ... have been earned in that area."

Mugabe said the nationalisation of the industry was necessary to prevent widespread swindling and smuggling by mining companies.

"You cannot trust a private company in that area. None at all. We should have learned from the experiences of Botswana, Angola, Namibia," he added.

During the interview, Mugabe said his successor must be chosen democratically and that he plans on living to 100.

"Why successor? I am still there. Why do you want a successor? I did not say I was a candidate to retire," he said

"In a democratic party, you don't want leaders appointed that way to lead the party. They have to be appointed properly by the people, at a gathering of the people, at a congress."

Mugabe said that he was not behind his wife Grace's quick rise within ZANU-PF, which has led to reports that she has plans to succeed her husband.

"Others say the president wants to leave the throne for his wife. Where have you ever seen that, even in our own culture, where a wife inherits from her husband?" Mugabe said.

Profile: Al-Shabab journalist Hassan Hanafi

Hassan Hanafi was a respected reporter and broadcaster in Somalia for many years. Now, he has been sentenced to death by firing squad for colluding with Islamist militant group al-Shabab in the murder of five fellow journalists between 2007 and 2011. 

Hanafi was born in the central Hiran region of Somalia in the early 1980s. When his family moved to Europe in the 1990s, he was the only one who stayed behind.

From 2003, he became a household name to many radio listeners in Somalia after joining popular Quran FM station in the capital Mogadishu. He left in 2006 to become an online reporter for a leading Somali website. 

A few years later, signs of his affiliation to al-Shabab emerged as he became the major source of all breaking news or reaction from the militant group. It would deny the loss of its members and claim victory through interviews with him on its propaganda station Radio Andalus.

He ran a secret bureau, monitoring news and threatening any reporter who spoke out against al-Shabab or portrayed the group in a bad light.

He would summon the offending journalists to meet him at his car.

Some were killed on the spot while others wisely declined and went on to flee the country.

Who are al-Shabab?

Nearly all the murders had a similar pattern. The victims were shot from close range in the streets or at a hotel. Others had explosive devices planted on their cars.

Often when a journalist was killed, Hanafi would be among the first to arrive at the scene or to confirm the person's death.

In 2010, the killing of Sheikh Noor Mohamed, a senior journalist at Radio Mogadishu, caused widespread shock. 

Hanafi admitted that he planned it, saying Mohamed had been killed because he worked for the government.

In 2011, an al-Shabab court found Hanafi guilty of an unspecified crime, and ordered his limbs to be amputated. 

However, the sentence was never carried out because of the service he had provided to the militants over the years.

Many Somalis were baffled by the contradictory nature of Hanafi's statements about his victims. He says he rejoices in every death because he has eliminated the enemy, but also hints at regret that someone whom he has known personally is dead. 

In 2014, he was arrested by police in neighbouring Kenya, where he had fled, and was then extradited to Somalia.

The death of reporters in Somalia has significantly reduced since his arrest.